What a novel and surprising concept, a pay-per-minute café

A café where everything – tea, coffee, fruit juice cake, biscuits, and breakfast cereal – is free. The charge is the length of time you spend in the café.

A friend told me of their visit to Liverpool, and their stop off at Ziferblat in Albert Dock for a cup of tea and a piece of cake. They were charged per minute while they were there. Everything they drank and ate was free. Now, I can’t quite remember what she said was the charge per minute. I think it was 8 pence. So, in 30 minutes the bill is just £2.40.

The Liverpool Echo has a description of the Ziferblat café, which is planning to offer meeting room hire by the minute. While Liverpool are yet to roll out there meeting rooms, Ziferblat in Manchester has a wide range of rooms [see their website], all hired at 6 pence per person per minute.

My friend was impressed by the concept, the ambience of the café, and the quality of the food and drink.

Amazing to think that charging for a coffee or tea could be reinvented. You can find out more about the Ziferblat history HERE – tee hee, it’s in Russian, better go HEREfor the UK site.

2 thoughts on “What a novel and surprising concept, a pay-per-minute café”

We have had the same concept here in Helsinki, Finland. You paid 5 euro, and you could stay for 60 minutes. There was a choice of various teasorts, coffees, cakes and “pie of the day” that were included in the price. Great idea.